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Limits to China's pledge of change

China promised an open Olympics for the media, and to promote human rights and democracy, in its bid for the Games. To see if it was true to its word, BBC Panorama reporter John Sweeney spent five weeks criss-crossing the country, following the torch relay.

BBC News
updated at 11:10 GMT, Sunday, 3 August 2008 12:10 UK

Fang Zheng is the kind of person who sums up the Olympic ideal. He lost his legs in what was, officially, a "traffic accident" and subsequently won golds in an all-China competition.

But when the torch came through his home town of Hefei, he was not there.

Fang's story tells you something about just how open modern China is.

"It wasn't a traffic accident," he told me. "The truth is that on June 4th 1989 when I was withdrawing from Tiananmen Square, I was chased from behind by a tank and both of my legs were crushed."

The 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre is still officially taboo in China. Hundreds died - nobody knows how many - but effective censorship means that millions of Chinese know nothing about it.

Fang, 41, continued: "When the tank crushed me, I was still conscious and I could see the white bones of my legs."     more ...

Hundreds of migrant workers attack police station in China

Posted 7/14/2008 5:20 AM
USA Today

SHANGHAI (AP) — Hundreds of migrant workers angry over mistreatment of a fellow worker surrounded a police station in eastern China and smashed cars and motorbikes, a Hong Kong-based human rights organization said Monday.

The three days of rioting began Thursday in Kanmen town in coastal Zhejiang province, according to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

The deputy director of the public security bureau in Yuhuan county, which oversees Kanmen, played down the incident. Wen Zhengui also denied that anyone had been killed in the violence, responding to a question from a reporter about rumors that two people had died.      more ......

China dissident Huang 'arrested'

BBC News
Page last updated at 16:08 GMT, Monday, 16 June 2008 17:08 UK

The mother of a dissident Chinese web journalist who vanished last week says he has been taken into police custody.  Huang Qi had not been seen or heard from since he was bundled into a car in Chengdu, the capital of the quake-hit province of Sichuan, last Tuesday.

It is thought Mr Huang may have been detained for posting an article about an academic held for criticising the government's response to the quake.  Mr Huang finished a five-year jail term for subversion in 2005.  He had allowed articles about China's 1989 pro-democracy protests to appear on his website, 64Tianwang.  Since his release, he has resumed his campaigning work, setting up the Tianwang human-rights centre.       more ...

China Says Arms Bound for Zimbabwe May Be Recalled

By REUTERS
Published: April 22, 2008

BEIJING, April 22 (Reuters) - China said on Tuesday a shipment of weapons bound for Zimbabwe may head back after the vessel was unable to unload, but defended the cargo as "perfectly normal trade".

Zambia's president urged regional states on Monday to bar the An Yue Jiang from entering their waters, saying the weapons could deepen Zimbabwe's election crisis. The ship already failed to unload its cargo in South Africa, and Mozambique and Angola have denied it access to their ports.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the contract for the shipment was signed last year and was "unrelated to recent developments" in Zimbabwe.

Jiang said the arms shipment was "perfectly normal trade in military goods between China and Zimbabwe", but because it was impossible for Zimbabwe to receive the goods, the company involved is now considering shipping the cargo back.    more ...

China Condemns Dalai Lama Honor

By REUTERS
Published: April 22, 2008

BEIJING, April 22 (Reuters) - China condemned on Tuesday Paris's decision to make the Dalai Lama an honorary citizen, warning that the gesture had damaged ties with France just as both nations were seeking to ease bad blood over protests.

Relations between France and China were strained by Tibet protests that disrupted the passage of the Beijing Olympic Games torch through Paris earlier this month.

Angry Chinese citizens have responded by urging boycotts of French goods and companies, especially the retailer Carrefour.

As French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chinese President Hu Jintao were seeking to heal rifts by sending envoys to each other, Paris city hall on Monday honoured the Dalai Lama, the exiled Buddhist leader whom China blames for unrest in Tibetan areas.

The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959, has long called for greater Tibetan autonomy and freedom. He says he opposes violent protest and demands for outright Tibetan independence, but China calls him a hypocrite.       more.....

China 'must not return N Koreans'

BBC Newss
Wednesday, 16 April 2008 07:15 UK

The US has urged China to stop repatriating North Korean refugees because of concerns over how the returnees are treated.

Those suspected of converting to Christianity or of meeting South Korean Christians face severe persecution, a report by a government commission said.  The treatment was part of Pyongyang's efforts to prevent the spread of religion, the report said.  The study was by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.  Entitled "A Prison Without Bars", it was based on interviews with 32 refugees and six North Korean security agents who had defected.

'Torture and prison'

According to the commission, there is a pressing need for action to address the repression of religious freedom and other human rights in North Korea.  It described the forced repatriation of refugees from China as "an issue of special concern".    more ...

China 'now top carbon polluter'

By Roger Harrabin
BBC Environment analyst

China has already overtaken the US as the world's "biggest polluter", a report to be published next month says.

The research suggests the country's greenhouse gas emissions have been underestimated, and probably passed those of the US in 2006-2007.

The University of California team will report their work in the Journal of Environment Economics and Management.

They warn that unchecked future growth will dwarf any emissions cuts made by rich nations under the Kyoto Protocol.

The team admit there is some uncertainty over the date when China may have become the biggest emitter of CO2, as their analysis is based on 2004 data.      Until now it has been generally believed that the US remains "Polluter Number One".      more ...

Chinese Relentlessly Patrol A Subdued but Jittery Lhasa

Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, April 15, 2008; Page A01

LHASA, China -- Two elderly Tibetan women lay prostrate before the Potala Palace on a recent day, venerating the 1,000-room hilltop monument that was once the seat of an independent Tibetan government and the Dalai Lama's winter residence.

About 30 feet away, two helmeted Chinese guards observed the display of traditional Buddhist devotion. Elsewhere in the Tibetan capital, other guards barred entrance to the city's most celebrated temples. Residents moved about their business, nervous and subdued.

One month after the explosion of violence that catapulted remote Tibet into the international spotlight, protests over Chinese policies here continue to unfold in many parts of the world, undermining China's effort to make the 2008 Beijing Olympics a display of progress at home and amity abroad. But here in Lhasa, the most visible outcome has been relentless street patrols by men in People's Armed Police uniforms who carry automatic rifles, check Tibetans' identification cards at random, and guard intersections and gasoline stations.       more ...

A new era or a 'made in China' affair?

Asia Times - Apr 15, 2008
By Ting-I Tsai

TAIPEI - It may have been somewhat of a coincidence that Taiwan's vice president-elect, Vincent Siew, of the Kuomintang party (KMT) met with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Saturday, just three weeks after he was elected, on the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia in China's island province of Hainan.  But their brief encounter had all the trappings of a major political summit because of the frosty relationship that has existed between the two archrivals across the Taiwan Strait over past decade.

Some believe the meeting marked the beginning of a new era in   cross-strait relations but critics branded it as nothing more than a staged show that was not in Taiwan's interests.  Siew, who will be sworn in along with president-elect Ma Ying-jeou on May 20 after the two won the island's presidential election on March 22 with a pledge for closer ties with mainland China, described his trip as "ice melting" in cross-strait relations and an occasion to reach out to the international community.

For China, the meeting afforded an opportunity to demonstrate its peaceful side amid escalating tensions in Tibet and Xinjiang and major disturbances of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games torch relay as it passes around the world. Some analysts in Taiwan contended the Hu-Siew meeting on the Boao Forum was more like a staged show directed by Beijing.          more ...

Beijing to Halt Construction Ahead of Olympics

The New York Times
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: April 15, 2008

BEIJING — Officials laid out an ambitious series of measures on Monday that will freeze construction projects, slow down steel production and shut down quarries in and around the capital this summer in an attempt to clear the air for the Olympics. Even spray painting outdoors will be banned during the weeks before and after sporting events, which begin Aug. 8.

Although officials initially suggested the city’s wholesale transformation would be complete long before the opening ceremonies, the announcement nonetheless represents the most detailed possible plan for how Beijing might reach its long-standing pledge to stage “green Games” in one of the world’s most polluted cities. In earlier proclamations, officials had said that the city’s makeover would be competed by the end of 2007.

The measures announced Monday include a two-month halt in construction, beginning July 20, and government directives will force coal-burning power plants to reduce their emissions by 30 percent throughout most of the summer. Officials said that 19 heavy-polluting enterprises, including steel mills, coke plants and refineries, would be either temporarily mothballed or forced to reduce production.

Gas stations that do not meet environmental standards will be closed, cement production will stop, and the use of toxic solvents outdoors will be forbidden.       more ...

China Demographic Crisis: Too Many Boys, Elderly

NPR
Lindsay Mangum, NPR

Morning Edition, April 14, 2008 · It has been three decades since China's one-child policy was introduced as a temporary measure to slow the country's population growth. But there's rising opposition to the policy amid criticism that it's creating another demographic crisis.

The trends are exemplified in the city of Shanghai, which has the lowest birth rate and the highest proportion of seniors in China.

As two-year-old Maomao and her 10-month-old brother Lulu play in a Shanghai park, little do they realize they're a departure from three decades of strict family planning. Although many rural Chinese have two children, China still limits most urban families to just one child.

Because Maomao and Lulu's parents are both only-children themselves, they're among the privileged few city dwellers allowed to have two kids.

"I was lonely as a child," says their mother Zara, who didn't want her full name to be used. "I was jealous of friends who had brothers and sisters. Now my friends are envious of my two children."

Figures bear this out: A poll last year showed 69 percent of Chinese would support a proposal to abolish the one-child policy.

Zara has come to the park with her mother-in-law, and her 81-one-year-old mother-in-law. All of them support China's efforts to control its population.

"Our leaders have thought a lot about the country's policies," the 81-year-old matriarch says. "Whatever they say is right."

'Abnormal' Sex Ratio at Birth

However, demographic scholars aren't so sure. Some academics now believe the simplistic thinking behind the one-child policy could be responsible for a looming demographic crisis.

Among them is Peng Xizhe, dean of social development and public policy at Fudan University       more ...

IOC chief: Olympics in 'crisis' over torch chaos

Rogge tells China to respect vow to improve human rights, open up media

New York Times
April 10, 2008

BEIJING - IOC president Jacques Rogge said Thursday the turmoil surrounding the Beijing torch relay and the politically charged buildup to the Summer Games posed a "crisis'' for the Olympic movement.

Rogge urged China to respect its "moral engagement'' to improve human rights and to fulfill promises of greater media freedom. He reaffirmed the right of free speech for athletes at the Beijing Games.

At the same time, the International Olympic Committee expressed relief that the San Francisco leg of the torch relay passed off without major incident and declared that the rest of the international route would not be cut short or canceled.        more ...

Monks Disrupt Media Tour in China

New York Times
By JIM YARDLEY and JAKE HOOKER
Published: April 10, 2008

BEIJING — China suffered another unexpected public relations setback on Wednesday when Buddhist monks interrupted a government-managed news media tour in western China by waving a Tibetan flag and protesting that the authorities were depriving them of their human rights.

Tibetan monks held a sign that read, “We do not have freedom of speech,” and shouted slogans as reporters arrived Wednesday at Labrang Monestary in Xiahe, China, on a government tour.

The disruption, in Xiahe, a city in Gansu Province, was the second in which monks had upstaged government efforts to control tours of Tibetan areas for foreign journalists.

Last month, several monks in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, risked official punishment when they made an emotional appeal to foreign

journalists inside the Jokhang Monastery, one of the city’s holiest shrines.

The outburst on Wednesday occurred as authorities guided reporters through the Labrang Monastery. The tour was the first officially approved visit to Xiahe by foreign reporters since monks and other Tibetans in the city clashed with the police last month. During the tour, about 15 monks rushed out, waving a Tibetan flag, and approached a group of about 20 Chinese and foreign reporters.

“The Dalai Lama has to come back to Tibet,” one monk said, according to Reuters, which was invited on the tour. “We are not asking for Tibetan independence; we are just asking for human rights. We have no human rights now.”

Several monks draped their heads in robes, Reuters reported, possibly in an attempt to conceal their identities and avoid later punishment. The monks also said that local authorities were holding other monks and that armed plainclothes security officers were posted around the city.       more ...

Olympic Torch Goes Out, Briefly, in Paris

New York Times
By KATRIN BENNHOLD and ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: April 8, 2008

PARIS — China dubbed its Olympic torch relay the “Journey of Harmony,” a 21-nation promotional tour for the most expensive Games the world has seen and for a host nation eager to showcase its rising wealth and diplomatic clout.

But what was supposed to be a majestic procession through the French capital resulted in waves of chaos on Monday, as human rights groups used the event to assail China’s record on rights and make the Olympic Games an increasingly delicate political challenge for the governing Communist Party.

China has spent eight years and tens of billions of dollars preparing to host the Summer Games, which Beijing has envisioned as a kind of coming-of-age party to showcase its rapid growth. But the outbreak of violent unrest in Tibet and a continuing crackdown there by Chinese security forces has emboldened China’s critics, a diverse coalition of rights groups whose demands are often ignored in China and played down by Western leaders eager to promote Chinese trade and investment.     more ...

Father 'caught bird flu from son'

BBC News
Tuesday, 8 April 2008 09:02 UK

Tests on a father diagnosed with bird flu in China show he probably caught the disease from his dying son.  Scientists are concerned that if the virus evolves to pass easily from human to human millions could be at risk.  A genetic analysis of the Chinese case published in The Lancet found no evidence to suggest the virus had gained that ability.  But an expert has warned that failure to control outbreaks of disease in poultry is fuelling the risk to humans.  

Writing in The Lancet, Dr Jeremy Farrar, of Vietnam's Hospital for Tropical Diseases, said: "Whatever the underlying determinants, if we continue to experience widespread, uncontrolled outbreaks of H5N1 in poultry, the appearance of strains well adapted to human beings might just be matter of time."      more ...

In France, Olympic Torch Extinguished During Protests

By John Ward Anderson and Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, April 7, 2008; 2:34 PM

PARIS, April 7 -- Protesters halted the Olympic torch relay in Paris Monday, forcing officials to extinguish the flame at least three times and carry the torch inside a bus for safety, despite a massive deployment of 3,000 police across the heart of the city.

The heavy security presence transformed the torch relay from a joyous celebration of the Olympics into a tense confrontation between police and demonstrators protesting China's crackdown on Tibet last month and its human rights record.

By late afternoon Paris time, with the relay hours behind schedule and facing continuous stops by protesters, officials gave up on finding a way to restart the procession. They said the torch would be carried by bus for the rest of the route, from the National Assembly building to the Stade de France sports complex, a distance of about 3.5 miles.

The decision was made by Olympic organizers and the Chinese Embassy, police in Paris said.

During the first part of the procession, athletes were surrounded by so much security they could barely run with the torch, and police scuffled with pro-Tibet demonstrators along much of the parade route.       more .....

Military Ransack Tibetan Temple in Sichuan Province, China

By Feng Changle
The Epoch Times
Apr 05, 2008

On 29 March 2008, the Chinese Communist Party's military police surrounded Kyidi Temple, the largest temple in the Aba autonomous region in Sichuan Province.

According to Mr. Sonam Dorje, Secretary General of the Tibet Religious Foundation of the Dalai Lama, the police broke into the temple in the early morning of 30 March and confiscated knives, swords, and arrows.

Mr. Sonam Dorje said, "In the morning on March 30, military police broke into the Temple and searched every monk's room. Afterwards, the police went to the Guardian Temple and confiscated exquisite divine instruments such as Tibetan knives, swords and arrows. These objects had been donated by the followers, but were taken as 'evidence.'"      more ...  
Click here to read this article in Chinese

China pay row pilots 'turn back'

A row over pay at several Chinese airlines has seen pilots disrupt flights, according to state media.

BBC News
Thursday, 3 April 2008 10:44 UK

At China Eastern Airlines, 14 pilots turned back mid-flight blaming bad weather, despite other aircraft travelling normally, the reports said.

And there are claims that other pilots co-ordinated "sick days" - with about 40 Shanghai Airlines crew not coming to work on one day last month.

Jail for Chinese rights activist

BBC News
Thursday, 3 April 2008 07:59 UK

A prominent activist who publicised human rights abuses across China has been convicted of subversion and jailed for three-and-a-half years.  Hu Jia, 34, was convicted of "inciting subversion of state power and the socialist system", his lawyer said.  He has long campaigned for the environment, religious freedom and for the rights of people with HIV and Aids.  His sentence comes a day after a rights group accused China of a campaign to silence dissent ahead of the Olympics.

The US was "dismayed" by the verdict, a spokeswoman for the US embassy in Beijing said, while the European Union called for Mr Hu's immediate release.  "We said very clearly before the trial that he should not have been detained in the first place and that he should be released and this remains our position," Beijing spokesman William Fingleton told the French news agency AFP.     more ...

Repression continues in China, six months before Olympic Games

When the International Olympic Committee assigned the 2008 summer Olympic Games to Beijing on 13 July 2001, the Chinese police were intensifying a crackdown on subversive elements, including Internet users and journalists. Six years later, nothing has changed. But despite the absence of any significant progress in free speech and human rights in China, the IOC’s members continue to turn a deaf ear to repeated appeals from international organisations that condemn the scale of the repression.

From the outset, Reporters Without Borders has been opposed to holding the Olympic Games to Beijing. Now, a year before the opening ceremony, it is clear the Chinese government still sees the media and Internet as strategic sectors that cannot be left to the “hostile forces” denounced by President Hu Jintao. The departments of propaganda and public security and the cyber-police, all conservative bastions, implement censorship with scrupulous care.

Around 30 journalists and 50 Internet users are currently detained in China. Some of them since the 1980s. The government blocks access to thousands for news websites. It jams the Chinese, Tibetan and Uyghur-language programmes of 10 international radio stations. After focusing on websites and chat forums, the authorities are now concentrating on blogs and video-sharing sites. China’s blog services incorporate all the filters that block keywords considered “subversive” by the censors. The law severely punishes “divulging state secrets,” “subversion” and “defamation” - charges that are regularly used to silence the most outspoken critics. Although the rules for foreign journalists have been relaxed, it is still impossible for the international media to employ Chinese journalists or to move about freely in Tibet and Xinjiang.      more ...

Brit spies confirm Dalai Lama's report of staged violence

Canada Free Press
By Gordon Thomas

Britain's GCHQ, the government communications agency that electronically monitors half the world from space, has confirmed the claim by the Dalai Lama that agents of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the PLA, posing as monks, triggered the riots that have left hundreds of Tibetans dead or injured.

GCHQ analysts believe the decision was deliberately calculated by the Beijing leadership to provide an excuse to stamp out the simmering unrest in the region, which is already attracting unwelcome world attention in the run-up to the Olympic Games this summer.

For weeks there has been growing resentment in Lhasa, Tibet's capital, against minor actions taken by the Chinese authorities.

Increasingly, monks have led acts of civil disobedience, demanding the right to perform traditional incense burning rituals. With their demands go cries for the return of the Dalai Lama, the 14th to hold the high spiritual office.

Committed to teaching the tenets of his moral authority---peace and compassion---the Dalai Lama was 14 when the PLA invaded Tibet in 1950 and he was forced to flee to India from where he has run a relentless campaign against the harshness of Chinese rule.

But critics have objected to his attraction to film stars. Newspaper magnate Rupert Murdoch has called him: "A very political monk in Gucci shoes."

Discovering that his supporters inside Tibet and China would become even more active in the months approaching the Olympic Games this summer, British intelligence officers in Beijing learned the ruling regime would seek an excuse to move and crush the present unrest.         more ...

Anti-Chinese cracks in Philippine rice bowls

Asia Times
By Donald Kirk
Apr 3, 2008

Anti-Chinese cracks in Philippine rice bowls:

Fast-rising rice prices in the Philippines are reinforcing the widespread belief that Filipino-Chinese rice barons are hoarding supplies in clandestine stockpiles around the country. The government has pledged to "hit the hoarders", but the issue continues to play into the deep anti-Chinese sentiments of a population that believes "rich Chinese" dominate just about every area of business and finance.

MANILA - Ask a woman named Cora why these days she has to spend so much more for rice for her food stand and family and she's got a fast racial response. "The Chinese are the ones," she said without hesitation. "They are handling all these things. They are the capitalists of the Philippines."

Shopping for the lowest prices in one of Manila's traditional markets, Cora blames "seven names" - the names of the Filipino-Chinese merchants who are widely accused of hoarding rice in order to reap higher and higher profits by driving up prices.     more ...

China’s Leader Orders Police to Ensure Olympic Security

The New York TimesBy HOWARD W. FRENCH
Published: April 2, 2008

SHANGHAI — The Chinese president, Hu Jintao, has ordered his nation’s security forces to place a top priority on the Olympic Games in August, saying that China’s international reputation is at stake.

China has increased its accusations that Tibetans are planning violent attacks in their quest for increased autonomy, which the Tibetans deny.

“Security must take priority,” Mr. Hu was quoted as saying in the People’s Armed Police News, published by China’s paramilitary police force. “Without security guarantees there cannot be a successful Olympic Games, and without security guarantees the national image will be lost.”

In one of the latest accusations, a spokesman for the Public Security Bureau, Wu Heping, said Tuesday: “To our knowledge, the next plan of the Tibetan independence forces is to organize suicide squads to launch violent attacks. They claimed that they fear neither bloodshed nor sacrifice.”

A senior official in the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, India, immediately denied the Chinese accusations. “Tibetan exiles are 100 percent committed to nonviolence,” said the official, Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche. “But we fear that Chinese might masquerade as Tibetans and plan such attacks to give bad publicity to Tibetans.”       more ...

Beijing Steps Up Falun Gong Persecution Ahead of Olympics

Over 100 Falun Gong adherents reported tortured to death since January

By Caylan Ford
Epoch Times Staff
Apr 02, 2008

As the Chinese regime's violent repression continues in Tibet, another group claims they too are experiencing heightened persecution.

Representatives of the Falun Gong spiritual practice say that, since January of this year the Chinese regime has tortured over 100 Falun Gong adherents to death, mostly in reeducation-through-labour camps.

The New York-based Falun Dafa Information Center claims to have received reports from inside China of over 1,878 arrests of Falun Gong adherents since January. The Centre says that authorities in at least 29 Chinese provinces have been conducting door-to-door sweeps in search of Falun Gong practitioners or anyone in possession of Falun Gong-related books or materials.

According to reports relayed by Falun Gong inside China, the Public Security Bureau has been offering cash rewards to citizens who turn in Falun Gong adherents. In one city in Shandong province, authorities have announced a reward of up to 3,000 Yuan for information leading to the arrest of a Falun Gong practitioner.

Once detained, the Falun Gong adherents are sent without trial to reeducation-through-labour camps, where reports indicate they face torture and other forms of abuse.

The Falun Gong website Minghui.org, which receives and compiles accounts of persecution from inside China, has reported that 129 Falun Gong adherents were tortured to death by authorities between January 1st and March 20th, 2008. The website provided a list and case details for each individual reported to have been killed.           more ...

China confirms Xinjiang protests

By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Beijing
10:48 GMT, Wednesday, 2 April 2008 11:48 UK

China has admitted that protests took place in a restive western region last month, days after unrest in Tibet.

Protesters "caused a disturbance" in the market town of Hotan in China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, according to the local government.  But there are conflicting reports about what caused the incident and the number of people involved.  Officials say protesters wanted independence for Xinjiang, but other reports blamed local disputes.  Xinjiang is a mostly Muslim region, many of whose inhabitants would like to see greater autonomy from Beijing.

According to Hotan local government, the incident took place on 23 March in the town's bazaar.  "A small number of the 'three forces'... attempted to incite the masses and provoke an incident," a press release said. No one was injured.  The "three forces" is a term used by the Chinese government for separatists, terrorists and extremists.   The press release went on to say that the public security bureau and the police stopped the protesters, who, it said, wanted to split the motherland.        more ...

China makes 'suicide squad' claim

By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Beijing
13:10 GMT, Tuesday, 1 April 2008 14:10 UK

China claims that Tibetan "independence forces" are planning to launch suicide attacks as part of a wider uprising to establish an independent Tibet.  Public Security Ministry spokesman Wu Heping said these suicide squads "fear neither bloodshed nor sacrifice".  Mr Wu did not produce any evidence to back up the claims - but said China would release proof later.  The prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, Samdhong Rinpoche, denied China's allegations.  Mr Wu claimed the wave of protests that erupted across Tibetan areas recently was part of a "Tibetan People's Uprising Movement" ahead of the Olympic Games.  He said police had recently discovered guns, ammunition, knives and explosives in the dormitories of Tibetan monks.

Mr Wu's comments mark a dramatic increase in the seriousness of the accusations against Tibetans and, by extension, the Dalai Lama, the head of Tibetan Buddhism.  "To our knowledge, the next plan of the Tibetan independence forces is to organise suicide squads to launch violent attacks," he said at a press conference.   He went on to say that the recent anti-Chinese demonstrations by Tibetans were part of a well-thought-out plan to split Tibet and China      more ...

Toronto Chinese Rally Turns Ugly—UPDATED With Video

Participants heckle Tibetans: 'Leave Canada.' Mayor's China trip questioned

By Jason Loftus
Epoch Times Toronto Staff
Mar 30, 2008

TORONTO—A rally that was billed as promoting "anti-violence" turned hostile on Saturday as flag-waving Chinese denounced Tibetans who they blamed for the recent turmoil in Tibet in which 100 are said to have died.  Close to 1000 Chinese were in Toronto's Dundas Square for the afternoon event, many of them students.

"Dalai Lama die there!" some Chinese shouted at a group of Tibetans who had gathered across the street from the square to protest. "Leave Canada!" others urged.

Tibetans say the Chinese rally, which began orderly, was designed to incite hate against them.  The event was promoted in Chinese-language press as a rally to tell the "truth" about Tibet and "safeguard the reunification of the motherland."

Several major Chinese-language media outlets in Canada have parroted the Chinese communist regime's line on Tibet, blaming the turmoil on the Dalai Lama and his followers and fanning a nationalist animosity toward Tibetans.     more ...

Photos provide the real picture on Tibet violence

Since the protests began, the Chinese government has consistently denied the high death tolls in Tibet. Exile groups claim as many as 100 people have died, many of them shot. The Chinese government claims only 16 have died, and they have denied shooting anyone.
Claims from both sides are difficult to verify because reporters have been expelled from the area.       See the wounded and killed people of Tibet in photos more...

China puts out its Tibet version

CNN News
updated 3:55 a.m. EDT, Sun March 23, 2008

CHENGDU, China (AP) -- With restive Tibetan areas swarming with troops and closed to scrutiny from the outside world, China's government has turned up efforts to put its own version of the unrest before the international public.

Information barely trickled out of the Tibetan capital Lhasa and other far-flung Tibetan communities, where foreign media were banned and thousands of troops dispatched to quell the most widespread demonstrations against Chinese rule in nearly five decades.

The Chinese government was attempting to fill the information vacuum with its own message, saying Sunday through official media that the restive areas were under control.

The government has also disseminated footage of Tibetan protesters attacking Chinese and accusations of biased reporting by Western media via TV, the Internet, e-mail and YouTube, which is blocked in China. The media barrage underscored that the government campaign is moving into a new phase of damage control ahead of the much-anticipated Beijing Olympics in August.

On Sunday, Communist Party newspapers accused the Dalai Lama of orchestrating the riots in Tibet to try to mar the Olympics and overthrow the area's communist leaders. It was China's latest attempt to demonize the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader in the eyes of the Chinese public, which is strongly supportive of the Olympics. Video Watch demonstrators in India voice support for the Dalai Lama »

"The Beijing Olympics are eagerly awaited by the people of the whole world, but the Dalai clique is scheming to take the Beijing Olympics hostage to force the Chinese government to make concessions to Tibet independence," the People's Daily said.

While China's rigorous policing of the Internet is far from foolproof, its official Internet is pervasive and there is no easy access to an alternative in the country. The difficulty of confirming what is going on inside Tibet may also be hindering a stronger world reaction.

"They've successfully managed the messages available to the average Chinese citizen, and this has fueled broad public support for a heavy-handed approach to controlling unrest," said David Bandurski, a Hong Kong University expert on Chinese media. "There will be no nuances to Tibet coverage."       more ...

China Cuts Off Access to Western News Sites

NPR
Weekend Edition Saturday, March 22, 2008 ·

Over the past week of uprisings in Tibet, the Chinese government has cut access to Western media websites to keep the Chinese people from finding out how serious the crisis has been. more ...

China shows its brutal side in Tibet

Edmonton Sun[Saturday, March 22, 2008 18:02]

Paramilitary police march in a street in Zhongdian, in a Tibetan area known as Shangri-La, in Yunnan province Saturday March 22, 2008. Thousands of troops have moved into Tibetan areas outside Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) following last week's anti-government riots in Tibet's capital, Lhasa. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)
Paramilitary police march in a street in Zhongdian, in a Tibetan area known as Shangri-La, in Yunnan province Saturday March 22, 2008. Thousands of troops have moved into Tibetan areas outside Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) following last week's anti-government riots in Tibet's capital, Lhasa. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)
The authoritarian crackdown by the Chinese state on the people of Tibet is in full swing. Since foreigners and journalists are now banned from the country and Tibetans can be jailed for speaking to foreign media, there's little anyone outside China can do now to influence events. The People's Liberation Army will do what it does, and all expressions of public dissent in Tibet will be ruthlessly crushed -- again.

The greater question is what do the rest of us do next. Will we turn a blind eye, as we have in the past?

China's repression in Tibet is not a theory, or a political position. It is a fact, backed up by numerous independent accounts. In 1950 China invaded and took over Tibet by force. Since then China has deliberately flooded the country with ethnic Han Chinese immigrants, in effect making Tibetans a minority in their own land. Tibet's Buddhist monks, the country's traditional spiritual and temporal leaders, have been either repressed or co-opted by Beijing.       more ...

China posts wanted list for Tibet

BBC News
Last Updated: Saturday, 22 March 2008, 05:41 GMT

There has been a steady security build-up in Tibetan areas
Chinese authorities have issued a list of 21 people wanted for their alleged role in anti-China riots in the Tibetan city of Lhasa last week.  Photos of the suspects were posted on the internet as China continued the crackdown that followed the unrest.  China has said that 19 people were killed in the Lhasa riots, which later spread to other Tibetan areas.  But Tibetan exiles say that nearly 100 have been killed by the Chinese security forces.

The official People's Daily newspaper said on Saturday that those responsible should be severely punished.  "China must resolutely crush the conspiracy of sabotage and smash 'Tibet independence forces'," the paper said in an editorial.     more ...

China accuses Dalai Lama of taking Olympics "hostage"

Reuters
Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:55pm EDT
By Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has accused the Dalai Lama of planning bloodshed in Tibet and colluding with Uighur terrorists in Xinjiang as it pushes a security and propaganda drive to stifle anti-Chinese unrest in its remote west.

Anti-government protests by Buddhist monks erupted in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, from March 10 and five days later anti-Chinese rioting shook the city, killing a policeman and 18 innocent civilians, burnt or hacked to death, authorities have said.

Protests then flared in nearby provinces with large ethnic Tibetan populations, leaving at least several more people dead.

Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, has criticized the violence and said he wants talks with China to negotiate autonomy, but not outright independence, for his homeland, which was occupied by Chinese troops from 1950.

But as Beijing extinguishes unrest in Tibetan areas by pouring in troops, it is also intensifying a propaganda campaign to tell its citizens and the rest of the world that the Dalai Lama, not failings in government policy, is to blame.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party's official newspaper, the People's Daily, said on Sunday that the Dalai -- winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize -- had never abandoned violence since fleeing China in 1959, after a failed revolt against Beijing.

"This incident again demonstrates that the so-called 'peaceful non-violence' of the Dalai clique is an outright lie from start to end," the paper stated.     more ...

On Tibet Frontlines, Protestors 'Shot Like Dogs'

ABC News
By NICK SCHIFRIN
DHARAMSALA, India, March 17, 2008

The Chinese military is shooting Tibetan demonstrators "like dogs," a Tibetan exile group said Monday, firing "indiscriminately" intro
groups of people protesting Chinese rule.

The accusation was leveled by the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, a group run by exiled Tibetans in Dharamsala, India, home to the Dalai Lama. Exile groups in India receive some of the few reports from inside Tibet and have provided some of the only reporting from there since last Monday, when the most significant Tibetan protests in 20 years began.

"People have been saying they're shooting our people like dogs," Tenzin Norgay, the spokesman for the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, told ABC News, citing his sources inside Tibet. He spoke just a few hours after a deadline set by the Chinese government expired for the protestors to stop or face a crackdown. The protests, he says, continued, and so did the retaliation.   more ...

Photo Report: A Glance at Tibet on March 14

By Han Xinxin
Epoch Times Staff
Mar 22, 2008

LHASA—On March 21, the situation in Lhasa remained tense as the Chinese communist regime continues to flood Lhasa with various armed forces. The regime plans to strengthen its martial law as it anticipates more uprising from the Tibetans in Lhasa on March 24-26.

A policeman noticed a reporter photographing, and forcefully deleted all photographs before allowing the reporter to leave. The following photos were taken on March 14 of the armed suppression in Lhasa, before armed forces opened fire.

These photos clearly document the Chinese communist regime's army, police military vehicles, and tank entering and stationing in Lhasa. Some armed forces personnel, dressed in civilian clothing with bulletproof vests, held submachine guns, while other armed forces and police attempt to suppress the crowd.       more ...

Tibetan exiles reel at images of their dead

Matt Wade, Dharamsala
March 21, 2008

TIBETANS in exile in India have gathered outside the monastery and temple complex in Dharamsala that is home to the Dalai Lama each day since protests started in Tibet.

Information from inside Tibet has been posted regularly at the entrance to the complex known as the Tsuglagkhang, and there is always a crowd of people reading the notices.   But it has been getting harder to look at the material being posted on the wall.  For the past few days, grim colour photos of the disfigured bodies of Tibetan protesters killed in Tibet have appeared.

They are gruesome images of bodies in pools of blood. Some appear to have gunshot wounds, conflicting with Chinese claims that no live ammunition has been used on protesters. Yesterday, one young monk studied the photos with an ashen face. Eventually he turned away and wiped tears from his eyes with his maroon tunic. He walked slowly back into the monastery.    more ...

Tibet uprising cracks the face of modern China

Mary-Anne Toy, Songpan, Sichuan Province
March 21, 2008
Page 1 of 3 | Single page

"LOVE your country, love your religion, together let's build a harmonious society," reads the banner fluttering in the spring sunshine at the 400-year-old Tibetan monastery in remote Sichuan province.

The Communist Party slogan, intended to reassure people that religion can co-exist with communism, rang hollow this week as Beijing mobilised its formidable security forces to contain the worst outbreak of Tibetan protests against Chinese rule in two decades.

This tiny Sichuan monastery seems at first untouched by the crisis that escalated from peaceful protests by 400 monks in the Tibetan capital Lhasa last Monday into riots involving thousands of disaffected Tibetans that gutted hundreds of Han Chinese businesses before spreading like a bushfire to at least three neighbouring Chinese provinces with large Tibetan communities.      more ...

Chinese Spectre of Evil Is Roaming -- China handles Tibet protests in Greece, Nepal/Spero News

Micky Wong
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2008 09:49:29 -0400
Local: Sat, Mar 15 2008 9:49 am

China handles Tibet protests in Greece, Nepal/Spero News

Observers report Chinese embassy staff were directing Nepal's handling  of protests on Tibet -- BBC film crew caught Chinese staff filming  protesters in Greece

Friday, March 14, 2008
Spero News  http://www.speroforum.com/site/article_images/sampleKTM_protest_10Mar08_05.jpg

Two Chinese officials photographed observing the Kathmandu police. One  of the officials spat on the American who took this photo and the  camera.  The Chinese officials yelled in English to the Nepalese police  to apprehend the American and take the camera away, which the Nepalese  police did not act upon. ICT

Chinese embassy officials in Kathmandu on March 10 with the handling of  clashes between Nepalese police and Tibetans carrying out demonstrations  for an important Tibetan anniversary, March 10 National Uprising Day.  In Greece, too, Chinese officials filmed Tibetan activists and were  caught on camera attempting to impede a peaceful protest by Tibetans  linked to the Olympics in Olympia, ancient site of the first Olympics.      more...

Olympics clean up Chinese style: Inside Beijing's shocking death camp for cats

Daily Mail
By SIMON PERRY - More by this author » Last updated at 00:55am on 9th March 2008

Thousands of pet cats in Beijing are being abandoned by their owners and sent to die in secretive government pounds as China mounts an aggressive drive to clean up the capital in preparation for the Olympic Games.  Hundreds of cats a day are being rounded and crammed into cages so small they cannot even turn around.  Then they are trucked to what animal welfare groups describe as death camps on the edges of the city.

The cull comes in the wake of a government campaign warning of the diseases cats carry and ordering residents to help clear the streets of them.   Cat owners, terrified by the disease warning, are dumping their pets in the streets to be picked up by special collection teams.   Paranoia is so intense that six stray cats -including two pregnant females - were beaten to death with sticks by teachers at a Beijing kindergarten, who feared they might pass illnesses to the children.

China's leaders are convinced that animals pose a serious urban health risk and may have contributed to the outbreak of SARS - a deadly respiratory virus - in 2003.   But the crackdown on cats is seen by animal campaigners as just one of a number of extreme measures being taken by communist leaders to ensure that its capital appears clean, green and welcoming during the Olympics.   more ...

Pollution turns Chinese river red

Water supplies to about 200,000 people in central China have been contaminated by pollution, which has turned branches of a major river system red.

BBC News
Last Updated: Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 11:12 GMT

At least three tributaries of the Han river - a branch of the Yangtze - have been affected.  State media reported high levels of chemicals in the water.  China is increasingly concerned about its environment. A recent ban on plastic bags has led to the country's largest bag factory shutting down.  The Xinglong, Tianguan and Dongjing rivers were all affected by the pollution, according to the state news agency Xinhua.  

A chemical spill is thought be the cause, but the source has not yet been identified and an investigation has been launched.  Gao Qijin, a water company official in Xinguo, Jianli County, told Xinhua that the water in the Dongjing river had become red with large amounts of bubbles.     more ...

China Farmland Privatisation Protests Set to Grow

Reuters - Feb 11, 2008

BEIJING—Chinese activists pushing for private ownership of farms are preparing for spreading protests to "reclaim" disputed land, intensifying a battle between state control and emboldened farmers.

China's ruling Communist Party keeps farmland under village "collective" ownership, effectively the grip of state officials. Farmers hold usage rights under 30-year leases and only the government can approve converting farmland for factories and urban housing.

But in a volley of protests and petitions in late 2007, farmers in three provinces sought to "reclaim" land lost to development and issued petitions demanding private ownership as a bulwark against corrupt confiscations and meagre compensation.

Wary of protests spreading, the government recently sentenced two organizers—Yu Changwu and Wang Guilin—in the northeast province of Heilongjiang to "labour re-education" (slave-labour prison camps) and temporarily detained farmers in northwest province of Shaanxi, said Beijing-based activists backing the campaigns.       more ...

Olympians forced to sign no-criticism-of-China contract

If competitors agree to clause but then speak their mind, they'll be sent packing

worldnetdaily.com
Posted: February 10, 2008
12:30 am Eastern

British athletes who want to compete in the summer Olympics will be required to sign a contract promising not to make statements critical of the communist regime's human rights record or they will not be permitted to travel to China, according to a 32-page document prepared by the British Olympic Association.

"There are all sorts of organizations who would like athletes to use the Olympic Games as a vehicle to publicize their causes," Simon Clegg, BOA's chief executive, told the London Daily Mail.

"I don't believe that is in the interest of the team performance. As a team we are ambassadors of the country and we have to conform to an appropriate code of conduct."

While this is the first time the clause prohibiting any kind of political statement about the hosting country has been included in the BOA contract, the British team is not alone. New Zealand and Belgium also make the same requirement of those who qualify to compete in Beijing.         more ...

No Sanctuary For House Churches in China

By Han Qing
The Epoch Times Feb 09, 2008

In 2005, CAA released its first annual report about the situation of religions in China to expose the mainland Chinese regime's persecution of house churches. Bob Fu, president of CAA, told the Epoch Times that because of incomplete statistics, the 2007 numbers represents only show a small portion of those who are persecuted by the Chinese regime.

Even with incomplete data, the statistics show a clear trend of increasing persecution against family churches.

According to the CAA report, persecution of house churches were documented in at least 18 provinces and one direct municipality. There were 60 cases in 2007, which is a 30 percent increase since 2006. The number of victims in 2007 increased by over 18 percent, to 788 people. In addition to the record-high number of 17 cases of physical abuse, the number of people arrested rose to 693.

Furthermore, at least 84 foreign missionaries were arrested, interrogated, deported or received other forms of persecution. The severity of persecution against house churches has gone up a dramatic 68.6 percent since 2006.     more ...

Japan scare over China dumplings

BBC News - Last Updated: Thursday, 31 January 2008, 11:12 GMT

A packet of the Chinese-made dumplings
People said they fell ill and vomited after eating the dumplings

Dozens of Japanese people say they have fallen ill after eating Chinese-made dumplings, prompting Tokyo officials to launch an inquiry.  The frozen dumplings, known as gyoza in Japan, were made by Tianyang Food in China's Hebei province.  Japanese officials said they contained traces of pesticide, probably added in production or packaging in China.  China said no traces of pesticide had been found in pre-export inspections, but ordered a halt to production.

The issue has triggered intensive media coverage in Japan and sparked public alarm.  Leaders held an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the problem.  The problems emerged on Wednesday, when 10 people were reported to have fallen ill from the dumplings - thin dough packets containing ground meat and vegetables which are then fried.

A five-year-old girl was in a serious condition in hospital, reports said.  By late Thursday there were unconfirmed reports of dozens of cases.  The Japanese distributor, JT Foods, has recalled the dumplings and other products made by the same company.    more ...

China activist formally arrested

By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Beijing
Last Updated: Friday, 1 February 2008, 05:43 GMT

A prominent Chinese activist has been formally arrested more than a month after being taken into custody.  Hu Jia, who publicises human rights abuses across China, has been accused of inciting subversion of state power.  Campaigners say his arrest shows that China is not keeping its promise to improve human rights ahead of this year's Beijing Olympic Games.  But the government says China is a country ruled by laws, and Hu Jia will be dealt with according to the law.

Two days after Christmas, about 30 security officers burst into Hu Jia's flat and took him away.  Officials were apparently tired of his efforts to support human rights cases across the country.  He had become a kind of one-man clearing house for information, passing it on to journalists, organisations and foreign embassies.  His wife Zeng Jinyan, also a prominent activist, has been put under house arrest with the couple's two-month-old baby.  The BBC was not allowed to visit her when we went to the couple's flat on the outskirts of Beijing last month.     more ...

Man Beaten to Death for Filming City Administrators' Brutality

By Feng Yiran
Epoch Times Staff
Jan 12, 2008

On January 7, a man was beaten to death by a group of city administrators* for filming their violent enforcement of an expired contract in Wanba Village in central China's Tianmen City, Hubei Province.

According to the Chutian Metropolitan, Mr Wei Wenhua, a construction company president, was driving through Wanba Village. His attention was caught by a violent confrontation between local villagers and a group of city administrators. He stopped his car and started to film the scene on his mobile phone. He was seen by the administrators and they then severely beat him up.

The Chutain Metropolitan reported that a villager on the scene told them that although Mr. Wei handed over his phone, the beating did not stop.

Five minutes later, Wei passed out on the ground. One of the administrators took him to a hospital, but Wei was declared dead on arrival.

The violent confrontation occurred at a landfill that is situated next to the villagers' homes. According to a villager named Li, two years ago, a government department negotiated with the village to use the parcel of land as a landfill.     more ...

China's trade surplus jumps 48%

BBC News
Last Updated: Friday, 11 January 2008, 06:59 GMT

China's trade surplus soared 48% in 2007 to a record high as its export-led economic boom continued, government figures have shown.  The gap between what China exports and imports expanded to $262.2bn (£134bn) last year.  The latest big annual rise in the surplus may increase pressure on China to allow the yuan to rise in value.  The US in particular accuses China of keeping the yuan undervalued to keep Chinese exports cheap.      more ...

China Limits Providers of Internet Video

Associated Press
By MIN LEE – 06:30 01/03/2007

HONG KONG (AP) — China has decided to restrict the broadcasting of Internet videos — including those posted on video-sharing Web sites — to sites run by state-controlled companies and require providers to report questionable content to the government.

It wasn't immediately clear how the new rules would affect YouTube and other providers of Internet video that host Web sites available in China but are based in other countries.

The new regulations, which take effect Jan. 31, were approved by both the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Information Industry and were described on their Web sites Tuesday.

Under the new policy, Web sites that provide video programming or allow users to upload video must obtain government permits and applicants must be either state-owned or state-controlled companies.       more ...

Reporters in China still face problems

The Age
January 1, 2008 - 8:17AM

Foreign journalists working in China face continued harassment despite new reporting rules brought in for the Olympic Games, a report by the Beijing-based Foreign Correspondents Club of China say.

China relaxed restrictions on foreign journalists at the beginning of the year, exempting them from having to apply for permission to travel and conduct interviews.

The change was part of the country's pledge to increase media freedom - a promise that helped Beijing win the honour of hosting the 2008 Olympics.

But the FCCC said it received more than 180 reports of interference in journalists' work in 2007, including beatings and intimidation by local plain clothes thugs in Beijing and other places such as central Hubei province.

Sensitive areas such as China's western Xinjiang province, home to China's Uygur minority, and Tibet, still remain difficult places to work in due to official obstruction and harassment, the FCCC said.    more ...